I am mother who really doesn’t care for Mother’s Day. Before bad stuff happened on Mother’s day, it was this day that I ran around making sure everyone had a good day. Before I worked hard to emphasize it, Mother’s day was forgotten.

I would feel bad and then in turn try to make my family feel guilty. See I was the kid who got up early when I was very young and tried to make mom breakfast in bed, or bake her a cake. So when my family forgot, I felt cheated.

The next step was to remind them constantly that Mother’s Day is coming. I remember one year when the first person to say “Happy Mother’s Day” to me was the head usher at church. That was ugly.

After that I pulled the let’s try super hard to make everyone have a good day. But then I felt cheated because Mother’s Day is supposed to be celebrating mom – not seeing her be “Super Martha” Mother’s Day is supposed to be “Super Mary”.

Then I kinda gave up on it. Just let it be. Shortly after that, I thought this year, I am planning something big for Mother’s Day. We will go to a resort hotel in Omaha. I had made reservations. We could go swimming and watch our favorite movies. See I had been trying to finish up my degree that year and was super focused on getting it finished. I wanted to make it up to them.

While I was trying to get in touch with my son, to bring him home so we could take off; he was busy being arrested. The next year, my Grandmother died. The year after that there was a huge riot at the jail where my son was staying. He wasn’t involved it was a different unit. It still affected us. The jail was locked down for almost 90 days and no visitors. Phone calls only every other day and letters were delivered once a week for a short time. It was awful.

The last couple of years, my husband and my other son have worked very hard. They try to help me forget my one son is in jail and my grandmother died on this day. They are trying to make up for years of neglecting Mother’s Day. It is sweet, but the sadness is still there.

This year, I told them instead of buying me presents, just take me shopping so I can buy a few things for myself that I have been meaning to buy. Since I hate to shop it is the perfect gift. Because taking me shopping is the ultimate sacrifice. They keep me calm while I buy things for myself. I buy stuff for them all the time.

There are others that hate Mother’s Day as well. Those who have lost a child either physically or to drugs and alcohol. Some lost children due to disease, some sort of accident, or worse because some war. Some lost their children due to their own mistakes (which doesn’t mean it does not hurt thinking about children that they do not know where they are and cannot hold). Some like me have children in prison. There are ones that are trying to be a mother and seeing everyone with children makes them sad. Or the ones that had a miscarriage.

If your parents are still alive, cherish your mom. That is another thing I have against Mother’s day. My mom is growing senile, lives 1100 miles away, and won’t answer her phone. She thinks the government is out to get her through her phone. Don’t take those mother/child relationships for granted. If you are angry at your mom today is the day to fix it. There might come a day when you can’t talk to her. She might be senile, or worse dead. She might come up missing. She may someday forget who you are. She might be in a foreign country being held hostage. She might be deployed in an area where communication is not allowed. (the same is true of children) We just don’t know what can happen. Don’t wait for Mother’s Day or Father’s day to cherish your parent.